Bloggers mock stumbles at Tumblr convention

Attendees of DashCon raise $17,000 to prevent their convention from being shut down.

Attendees of DashCon raise $17,000 to prevent their convention from being shut down.

John KeilmanTribune reporter

When a convention dedicated to the blogging platform Tumblr goes horribly wrong, one thing is certain: It will be discussed. And discussed. And discussed some more.

DashCon, an event held last weekend at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, has been knocked across cyberspace for poor planning. Organizers had to raise $17,000 on the spot to ensure the event wasn't canceled, and some panelists left after they didn't get their agreed-upon compensation.

Even a gesture of apology by the organizers went awry. Those who paid to reserve seats at a canceled panel were offered an extra hour in a child-size ball pit due to be returned to a rental company; bloggers mocked the prize so roundly that it became its own Internet meme.

“An extra HOUR in the pit?” said one tweet, paired with a Photoshopped image of Star Wars villain Boba Fett guarding a ball pit. “Amateurs. Try a thousand years."

Hotel general manager Lisa Timbo said she couldn't comment on specifics of the deal, but said convention organizers ultimately satisfied the terms of the contract.

"It was a first-time convention with the audience being millennials," she said. "They were, from our perspective, very lovely to work with. We really enjoyed the attendees."

Megg Eli, co-owner of the company that put on the convention, said miscommunications and technical glitches were behind the problems, adding that most who came appeared to enjoy themselves despite the snafus. She said some have already inquired about buying passes for next year's convention, scheduled for Indianapolis.

As for the ball pit, Eli said she had expected it to fit adults when she ordered it. The offer of extra time was a well-intentioned mistake on the part of another staffer, and while the resulting parodies stung a bit, Eli said she also found them hilarious.

"We didn't want to enjoy it, but it's hard not to at this point," she said in an e-mail. "The posts are witty and creative, and we can't help but be just as entertained as the rest of the internet."